388
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
%BBRUARY,1930
Though all teachers who contribute to any phase of the student teacher's professional preparation should be cognizant of the teaching problems in science, responsibility for the direction of practice in the laboratory school should be assigned to one person who is familiar with the technical principles involved in the teaching of science and with the materials in the branches which he will supervise. 3. The professional schools for teachers should assume serious responsibility for helping to define the educational values of science and should coiiperate with the public school teachers of these subjects in selecting and organizing these materials for teaching purposes. This will serve to define more sharply the problems in their own institutions, and furnish suggestions for meeting their recognized obligations.
Acetonedicarhoxylic Acid: It's a New Baking Powder. A baking powder which does not leave a residue in the finished bread or cake has just been worked out in the chemistry laboratories a t the University of Wisconsin, by Edwin 0.Wiig. This new leavening agent has as its active agent acetonedicarboxylic acid, which during the baking process disappears entirely as gases. The formation of carbon dioxide, the gas which "raises" the cake, is only part of the story of baking powder. The other part concerns the produd which remains in the cake as a residue. The various commercial baking powders on the market a t present leave as residues saline cathartics, such as sodium tartrate, Rochelle salt, disodium phosphate, sodium sulfate, or aluminum hydroxide. There is still a question as to the E possible ill effect of some of these materials upon health. Hence the advantage of a baking powder which leaves no residue whatsoever. Acetone is the only other substance formed besides carbon dioxide, and the acetone completely evaporates a t baking temperatures. The new powder depends for its action on combination with the water of the dough, iust as do the mesent mwders. Hence in order to protect it from atmospheric moisture it is mixed with starch. This cornstarch has a second function, more important than that iust mentioned. Starch makes it possible for the chemist to standardize his product. All baking powders must have approximately the same "raising" strength to make possible the use of any recipe. The housewife-consumer will not consult the label of her tin of baking powder, and then compute whether the "two tsps. h.p." of her recipe should he doubled or halved. Starch takes care of any variation in the amount of carbon dioxide given off by active agents of differing compositions. The keeping properties of acetonedicarboxylic acid baking powder are excellent, as Mr. Wiig has shown by various tests. It needs only to he kept in the customary moisture-proof tin. The keeping power of a product is of utmost importance to the manufacturer. Further study of the suitability of acetonedicarboxylic acid as a leavening agent is being continued a t the University of Wisconsin. The question of a cheaper source of A t prccmt citrlc xirl is rllr r:Lw material used 1351. m~tcrilllis still tlndcr investigatiun ~n thr m ~ k m zof acctonedrc~rboxylicacid. Cull lemons form thr natural sonrve of citric acid, and are the principal one in use. A shorter name for the substance would also be hiehly desirable, hut that is a simple problem.-Science Senlice
